As a music teacher for twenty-seven years, I have always known that music touches the soul. It can break through all kinds of barriers to reach students in a very special way. It can be the means for each child to find their light.

A few years ago, I was blessed with the opportunity to teach pre-school students one afternoon a week. One of my most memorable students was Vanessa. She was five years old, had difficulty walking, and could not speak. We mostly sat on the floor for our music lessons and Vanessa liked to sit on my lap. One of her favorite songs was John the Rabbit. It was a call and response song where I sang the call and the students clapped two times while singing the repeating phrase, “Oh, yes!” Vanessa liked to put her hands together with mine and clap with me. We performed that song during every class, Vanessa and I clapping together. She never said or sang a word.

One day late in the school year, when the song was finished, Vanessa turned around, looked me in the eye, clapped her tiny hands two times and said the words “Oh, yes!” I opened my mouth and could not speak. Through music, we had made a connection.

Several years later, I came across Vanessa on the street in town. I stopped my car and waved to say hello. She waved back with a big smile on her face and then clapped her hands two times, mimicking(模仿) the song we had performed in our music class. This precious little girl, through her connection with music, left an impression on me that will last forever.

Every child has the ability to learn and grow. It is up to us educators to discover the way to reach each and every one of our students. We all must find each child’s light.

The author thinks music ________.

   A. can make children calm down                  B. can connect heart to heart

C. is difficult for pre-school students           D. is a good means to find a job

According to the second paragraph, Vanessa ________.

A. got used to singing songs                       B. was too shy to speak

C. was the youngest in the class                  D. enjoyed the author’s classes

When Vanessa spoke the words “Oh, yes!”, the author felt ________.

   A. surprised                    B. happy               C. frightened         D. satisfied

What can we infer from the last two paragraphs?

   A. The author has been in touch with Vanessa for several years.

B. Vanessa became as healthy as other children.

C. The song made a deep impression on Vanessa.

D. Being a good educator became Vanessa’s dream.  [


President Coolidge’s statement, “The business of America is business,” still points to an important truth today — that business institutions have more prestige (威望) in American society than any other kind of organization, including the government. Why do business institutions possess this great prestige?
One reason is that Americans view business as being more firmly based on the ideal of competition than other institutions in society. Since competition is seen as the major source of progress and prosperity by most Americans, competitive business institutions are respected. Competition is not only good in itself, it is the means by which other basic American values such as individual freedom, equality of opportunity, and hard work are protected.
Competition protects the freedom of the individual by ensuring that there is no monopoly (垄断) of power. In contrast to one all-powerful government, many businesses compete against each other for profits. Theoretically, if one business tries to take unfair advantage of its customers, it will lose to competing business which treats its customers more fairly. Where many businesses compete for the customers’ dollar, they cannot afford to treat them like inferiors or slaves.
A contrast is often made between business, which is competitive, and government, which is a monopoly. Because business is competitive, many Americans believe that it is more supportive of freedom than government, even though government leaders are elected by the people and business leaders are not. Many Americans believe, then, that competition is as important, or even more important, than democracy in preserving freedom.
Competition in business is also believed to strengthen the ideal of equality of opportunity. Competition is seen as an open and fair race where success goes to the swiftest person regardless of his or her social class background. Competitive success is commonly seen as the American alternative to social rank based on family background. Business is therefore viewed as an expression of the idea of equality of opportunity rather than the aristocratic (贵族的) idea of inherited privilege.
1. The statement “The business of America is business” probably means______.
A. America is a great power in world business
B. Business is of primary concern to Americans
C. The business institutions in America are concerned with commerce
D. Business problems are of great importance to the American government
2. Americans believe that they can realize their personal values only ______.
A. by protecting their individual freedom                        
B. when given equality of opportunity
C. by way of competition                                               
D. through doing business
3. Who can benefit from business competition?
A. People with ideals of equality and freedom.   
B. Both business institutions and government.
C. Honest businessmen.                             
D. Both businessmen and their customers.
4. Government is believed to differ strikingly from business in that government is characterized by ______.
A. its role in protecting basic American values                  
B. its absolute control of power
C. its democratic way of exercising leadership
D. its function in preserving personal freedom
5. It can be inferred from the passage that the author believes ______.
A. in many countries success often depends on one’s social status
B. businesses in other countries are not as competitive as those in America
C. American businesses are more democratic than those in other countries
D. Americans are more ambitious than people in other countries

Education is not an end, but a means to an end. In other words, we do not educate children only for the purpose of educating them. Our purpose is to fit them for life.

In some modern countries it has for some time been fashionable to think that by free education for all — one can solve all the problems of society and build a perfect nation. But we can already see that free education for all is not enough; we find in such countries a far larger number of people with university degree; they refuse to do what they think “low” work; and, in fact, work with hands is thought to be dirty and shameful in such countries. But we have only to think a moment to understand that the work of a completely uneducated farmer is far more important than that of a professor; we can live without education, but we die if we have no food. If no one cleaned our streets and took the rubbish away from our houses, we should get terrible diseases in our towns…

In fact, when we say that all of us must be educated to fit us for life, it means that we must be educated in such a way that, firstly, each of us can do whatever work suited to his brains and ability and, secondly, that we can realize that all jobs are necessary to society, and that is very bad to be ashamed of one’s work. Only such a type of education can be considered valuable to society.

1.The writer of the passage thinks that _______.

A.education can settle most of the world’s problems

B.free education for all probably leads to a perfect world

C.free education won’t help to solve problems

D.all the social problems can’t be solved by education

2.The writer wants to prove that _______.

A.our society needs all kinds of jobs

B.our society needs free education for all

C.a farmer is more important than a professor

D.work with hands is the most important

3.The purpose of education is _______.

A.to choose officials for the country

B.to prepare children mainly for their future work

C.to let everyone receive education fit for him

D.to build a perfect world

4.The passage tells us about _______ of the education.

A.the means

B.the system

C.the value

D.the type

 

President Coolidge’s statement, “The business of America is business,” still points to a very important truth today — that business organizations have more prestige (威望) in American society than any other kind of organization, including the government. Why do business institutions still possess this great prestige?

One reason is that Americans view business as being more firmly based on the idea of competition than other organizations in society. Since competition is seen as the main source of progress and development by most Americans, competitive business organizations are respected. Competition is not only good in itself; it is the means by which other basic American values, such as individual freedom, equality of opportunity, and hard work are protected.

Competition protects the individual freedom by making sure that there is no monopoly (垄断) of power. Compared with one and all-powerful government, many businesses compete against each other for benefit. If one business tries to take unfair advantage of its customers, it will lose to the competing business which treats its customers more fairly. Since there are many businesses competing for the customers’ dollars, they cannot afford to treat them unfairly and the customers would lose nothing.

A contrast is often made between business, which is competitive, and government, which is a monopoly. Because business is competitive, many Americans believe that it gives more support for freedom than government, even though government leaders are elected by the people while business leaders are not. Many Americans believe that competition is as important, or even more important, as democracy in protecting freedom.

Competition in business is also believed to strengthen the idea of equal opportunities. Competition is seen as an open and fair race where success goes to any person regardless of his or her social class background. Competitive success is commonly seen as the American choice of the higher social position which is not based on one’s family background. Business is therefore viewed as an expression of the idea of equal opportunities.

1.Which of the following is discussed as the main topic in the passage?

A. Competition in America’s business.        B. Freedom in America’s business.

C. Americans’ different values.                   D. Business against government.

2. Americans believe that they can realize their personal values ______.

A. when given equal opportunities

B. through doing business

C. by protecting their individual freedom

D. by means of competition

3.Who can benefit from business competition?

A. Businessmen who compete.

B. Customers of those businesses.

C. People with the idea of equality and freedom.

D. Both business organizations and government.

4.It could be inferred from the passage that the author believes ______.

A. business in other countries are not as competitive as those in the USA

B. business problems are very important to the American government

C. the competition in business plays a very important role in America

D. American business is the most powerful one in the whole world

 

The industrial age has been the only period of human history in which most people’s work has taken the form of jobs. The industrial age may now be coming to an end, and some of changes in work patterns which it brought may have to be reversed. This seems a discouraging thought. But, in fact, it could offer the prospect of a better future for work. Universal employment, as its history show, hasn’t meant economic freedom.

Employment became widespread when the enclosures(圈地运动)of the 17th and 18th centuries made many people dependent on paid work by taking them away from the use of the land, and thus from the means to provide a living for themselves. Then the factory system destroyed the cottage industries and removed work from people’s homes. Later, as transport improved, first by rail and then by road, people traveled longer distances to their place of employment until, eventually, many people’s work lost all connection with their home lives and the places in which they lived.

Meanwhile, employment put women at a disadvantage. In pre-industrial times, men and women had shared the productive work of the household and village community. Now it became customary for the husband to go out to paid employment, leaving the unpaid work of the home and family to his wife. Tax and benefit regulations still assume this norm(准则)today, and restrict more flexible sharing of work roles between sexes.

It was not only women whose work status suffered. As employment became the dominant form of work, young people and old people were kept out — a problem now, as more teenagers disappointed and annoyed at school and more retired people want to live active lives.

All this may now have to change. The time has certainly come to switch some efforts and resources away from the utopian(乌托邦)goal of creating jobs for all, to the urgent practical task of helping many people to manage without full-time jobs.

1. From the passage we can learn that ____.

A.jobs have existed since human came into being

B.the industrial age brought jobs to everyone

C.the industrial age brought the work patterns most people’s work has taken

D.in the future more and more people could get jobs as the industry is developing

2.Before the enclosures of the 17th and 18th, people lived mainly on ____.

A.paid work

B.unpaid work

C.taxes and benefits

D.land

3.Before the industrial age women played ____.

A.more important roles in making a life

B.less important roles in making a life

C.roles as weak as after in raising their children

D.roles as important as men in supporting a family

4. From the passage we can infer that ____.

A.creating jobs for all must be changed

B.enough jobs must be created by our society

C.more and more jobs are being created

D.industrial age has made many people unable to live without full-time jobs

 

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